The Indie Experiment: What's your marketing philosophy?

Before I can talk about what kinds of marketing work, I have to talk about what marketing is, or more to the point, the fact that marketing and publicity mean different things to different people. To me, marketing is a search process, not a coercion process. I'm not trying to make people like my book, I'm looking for the people who will like my book. It was obvious once I thought about it. I want to be like the successful ice cream vendor who will locate themselves somewhere like a beach on a hot day and put up a big sign. They don't run around begging everyone to eat their ice cream, they make themselves noticeable to a crowd that is sure to include people who want ice cream.

Basically, once I grasped that I didn't have to beg anyone to read anything, I felt like I could step out and market myself. I could announce that I was a writer and put up a pitch on my website for my book and go for it. I can really, honestly say that I do not care if any one individual likes my book - if you, yourself hate it, fine. Really. To me, getting upset about a bad review is akin to an ice cream vendor ignoring a line of customers to chase off after someone who makes a face at their ice cream sign. Why bother? 

But that's me, and knowing this about myself allows me to adopt marketing strategies that I'll enjoy. I'll post more on those later. The point of this post is to note that what works for me may not work for everyone. There are plenty of people who are a lot more aggressive, who tell anyone and everyone they are a writer, who bombard their readers with emails and event invites on Goodreads, and who sell a ton of books in this way. That wouldn't work for me because I despise this kind of activity. I don't want to draft emails all the time. To me that feels like pestering, and so that's exactly the reaction I'll elicit from readers if I try it.

I will post the specifics of what I do in the next day or two. I just first want to make it clear that copying me verbatim may or may not work for you. It may be, from reading this post, that you'll already be well on your way to finding what does work for you. The question you need to ask yourself is, what kind of successful business model appeals to you? Who out there in the realm of moneymakers, do you relate to?